Conventional pallet structures suffer from a number of shortcomings. To date, pallets used in warehousing, transportation and storage operations have often been constructed in such a way, and from materials which are in appropriate to lending them to repeated use. For example, conventional pallets have traditionally taken the form of generally open enclosures which are made from wooden slats. Pallet structures of this nature have been used in storage, transportation and warehousing operations for many years. Particularly after an extended period of use, the constructional configuration of such pallets, and the material from which they are made (ie. generally wood), either alone in combination, results in them breaking. When that occurs, it is necessary for them to be replaced, which results in cost (including the cost of interruption of operations) as well as inconvenience to the business which uses them.
Moreover, the traditional wooden pallet is invariably a large structure, which is usually designed so as to be capable of being lifted only by the tines or blade of a forklift or another large vehicle having a similar lifting mechanism. Such pallets are therefore generally not suited to smaller scale lifting operations. In many lifting and storage operations, it would be desirable to have a storage structure which could conveniently be lifted by (for example) the blade of a hand-operated trolley. Conventional pallets of the type previously described are completely unsuitable for such operations.
In some operations involving the transportation of goods, a procedure called "Cross-docking" is (and in many instances, must) be utilised. "Cross-docking" refers to the situation where a "divisible" load of goods under transportation, after reaching a specified destination in the transportation process, is divided or broken down into two or more sub-loads, to enable the sub-loads to be transferred and transported on other vehicles. Typically, "cross-docking" would occur as an intermediate step in the commercial transportation of many goods to the ultimate wholesaling or retail outlet. Cross-docking would be used, for example, with goods that are transported on a large vehicle to a "central" receiving destination, and where different sub-loads of those goods are intended to be on-transported to separate destinations, on smaller or other vehicles. This procedure is not as efficient as it could be, as it frequently requires the original load to be carried on conventional (large) pallets, which (i) must either be removed from the vehicle transporting them to enable the load to be divided, or alternatively (ii) the load must be divided on the vehicle and transferred to the other vehicles involved. Clearly, it would be vastly preferable to be able to transfer sub-loads of the original consignment of goods to other transportation vehicles involved in the process in a more efficient manner. This is not possible with conventional pallets.
In addition, when traditional wooden pallets are not in use, their storage generally requires a considerable amount of space. As under-cover storage costs are generally high nowadays, typically, this means that such pallets are stored outside, and are therefore exposed to the elements. In the case of the wooden pallets. their exposure to the degrading forces of rain and the heat from sunshine only serves to deteriorate their structural integrity all the more. In turn, this increases the possibility of the pallet breaking, over the passage of time.
In addition, conventional pallets are generally stand-alone structures, and are not adapted in use, to engage other pallets so as to form larger load-bearing structures. This operational inflexibility of the conventional pallet is often disadvantageous, particularly where it is desired to use a pallet so as to create a larger load-bearing structure or surface, such as a platform.
It is problems such as these, which have brought about the present invention. The present invention therefore aims to alleviate at least one of the problems of the prior art mentioned previously.